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McLaren look to keep pressure on RBR

McLaren have upped the ante in their battle with Red Bull by making it clear they want to take the fight to the Milton Keynes outfit in China…

McLaren have upped the ante in their battle with Red Bull by making it clear that they have one goal for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix: taking the fight to the Milton Keynes outfit.

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel have made the perfect start to the 2011 season with the German not only claim pole position in the first two races but also walking away with the race victories.

McLaren though will be content as the MP4-26 is edging closer to the RB7 pace wise.

Lewis Hamilton, who dropped from seventh to eighth in the Malaysian GP standings after being hit with a retrospective drive-through penalty for weaving, says it will be important to keep the pressure on Red Bull in Shanghai.

“What’s been most encouraging is that our pace is still extremely strong: Jenson [Button] drove a fantastic race and was able to narrow the gap to Sebastian during the closing laps, and I think we have the pace to continue taking the battle to Red Bull this weekend.

“In both races, we’ve seen that Red Bull hasn’t been able to achieve its full potential, and I think it’s important that we keep applying the pressure to make sure they can’t afford to make mistakes.”

Button echoed his team-mate’s comments about taking the fight to the Champions pacesetters.

“Off the back of two successive podium finishes for the team, we’re not only hopeful of maintaining our finishing record, but of improving it too,” he said. “We’ve made no secret of our desire to take the fight to Red Bull, and we’re fully aware that stronger opposition will make it harder for them to have a smooth and uninterrupted weekend.

“As we expected, Malaysia showed that the sharp-end of the grid is incredibly competitive, and that there are at least four teams that can expect to fight for the podium this weekend.”